EPISO Leaders Win Millions for Infrastructure
In July, EPISO/BI leaders in Canutillo scored a major victory for sewer infrastructure, working with county commissioners and El Paso Water to dedicate 2 million dollars in ARPA funds for a sewerage project in Canutillo. Additionally, leaders from Montana Vista worked with their state legislator and EP Water to advance the second phase of their sewerage project this February. Both of these wins were decades in the making. Says EPISO/BI leader Suki Perez, "We've worked for years, knocking on doors in the heat and in the cold to get people organized."
Aprueban Servicios de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado, Telemundo48elpaso
El Paso County, Philanthropy to Leverage $900,000 in Direct Cash for Families
In their final court meeting before the holidays, the El Paso Commissioners Court voted unanimously to move forward with a proposal to invest $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars into Up Together, a direct cash assistance program for families in need. Up Together’s approach recognizes that people living with low incomes are already taking actions to improve their lives and invests in their initiatives with unrestricted dollars.
The philanthropic community, including the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation, had already agreed to match the county contribution with $400,000, putting the combined total to $900,000.
Read moreEPISO/Border Interfaith Leads Public Outcry Against City Project that Threatens to Demolish Local Homes
[Excerpt]
“Our community has heard from hundreds of residents who are opposed to this route, and many have just learned in the last few weeks that their homes may potentially be lost,” said Lorena Silvestre, a leader with EPISO/Border Interfaith and local resident.
“Of the three routes proposed, this one clearly hurts the most people who are elderly, Spanish-speaking and on limited income. These are families that built their homes with their own hands. We do not accept the argument that this is the “best route” to alleviate traffic.
Read moreThis is just the route [the City of Socorro] thinks people will not fight back. They are wrong."
Valley Interfaith and Allies Block Substandard Border Housing Bills
Valley Interfaith and EPISO teamed up to successfully oppose two bills that would have undermined the Model Rules for Development that govern real estate development in counties that border the Texas-Mexico border. The Model Rules for Development have been a critical tool that our organizations fought for over 30 years ago and which have limited the development of substandard housing lacking access to sewer and clean water lines, drainage and roads.
Texas IAF Rally Takes On "Vampire" Chapter 313 Legislation
[Excerpt]
A surprising legislative success in 2021 is on track to be undone in 2023, unless a grass roots left-right coalition can block legislation and the forces behind it that are trying to go backward....
In the name of jobs and economic development, a 2012 tax code trick called Chapter 313 essentially funneled state money, via school district property tax breaks, to private companies doing new industrial construction. The school districts that granted tax breaks under Chapter 313 were reimbursed — and many still are being reimbursed — by the state, meaning we as taxpayers reimbursed them. It was the ultimate insider game of channeling public benefit to private companies.
The [Texas] Industrial Areas Foundation cleverly brought a man dressed as Dracula to its rally to dramatize how Chapter 313 unfairly drained school districts of funds and that reviving this bad economic development deal would be akin to raising the undead.
Read moreNational Catholic Reporter Spotlights IAF Assistance with Synod Process
[Excerpt]
"They've developed a process of attentive listening over the years, talking to people about their lives and identifying the needs of a particular group," said [Bishop Mark] Seitz. "When we were trying to create a process for the synod, it occurred to me it was exactly the approach they'd long taken."
Read moreEPISO/Border Interfaith Secures $1 Million for Project ARRIBA
[Excerpt]
On Dec. 15, the El Paso County Commissioners Court unanimously awarded the organization [Project ARRIBA] $1 million in American Rescue Plan funds.
“Your decision to invest this one-time historic amount of funding will go a long way for our families and our economy at a time when there is an enormous need,” said Daniel Tirres, a leader with EPISO/BI to the commissioners. “Now is the time for the court to double down rather than let up.”
Read moreEPISO/Border Interfaith Challenges Candidates with 3 Key Questions
[Excerpts]
The El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO) and Border Interfaith held its first in-person candidate accountability session Sunday since the pandemic.
The six El Paso County Commissioners Court candidates remaining in the May 24 primary runoff election for Precincts 2 and 4 were invited to the session where they were asked to state their position on policies such as colonias, education and economic development programs....
The incumbent for Precinct 2, David Stout, and Judy Gutiérrez, a candidate for Precinct 2, both attended the meeting.
Sergio Coronado and David Adams, are both candidates for Precinct 4, and they were in attendance.
"I thought it was a great meeting. I wish more organizations, people would take the time to inform themselves, of what their candidates are willing and wanting to do for the people... how you’re [candidates] aligning to my needs," Coronado said.
[Photo Credit: KFOX 14/CBS4]
Precinct 2 & 4 Candidates Feeling Confident After Attending Community Meeting, FOX News 14 [pdf]
National Catholic Reporter Spotlights EPISO's Preparation of 222 to Lead Synodal Conversations in El Paso
In preparation for the synod, EPISO/Border Interfaith and Bishop Mark Seitz of the El Paso Catholic Diocese convened 222 ministry leaders from 39 parishes for two days of training in how to lead effective conversations.
Sponsored by CCHD, Mission & Ministry Impact, EPISO/Border Interfaith, and Organizers Institute, Recognizing the Stranger prepares trainees to put their faith in action through institutional organizing practices designed to strengthen their parishes. Teachings from Ezra and Nehemiah were recently integrated to support synodal strategies.
[Excerpt]
In the colonias, or unincorporated communities, surrounding El Paso, Texas, volunteers are knocking on doors, asking residents how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted them, and how the church can help them regroup and get back on their feet.
"It takes a lot of initiative to meet with people who aren't already in your [social and church] circles," said Surya Kalra, a lead organizer with the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, which is working with the Diocese of El Paso to listen to local voices for the synod.
"If you're doing a consultation with the people who are already in the pews, who are already coming to church, that's great, and helpful," Kalra told NCR. "The difficult part is figuring out how to reach out to people we don't see [in church], who used to be here, or would be here if we were different. That requires much more persistence and creativity."
Pope Francis Says Synod Should Hear 'Excluded' Voices, National Catholic Reporter [pdf] [pdf]
Fr. Ed Roden-Lucero, with EPISO/Border Interfaith, Leaves Legacy of Fighting for Justice
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For four decades, the Rev. Ed Roden-Lucero has influenced El Paso far beyond the walls of the parishes he pastored. He has been a key part of efforts to bring water and sewer services to tens of thousands of homes, and train hundreds of El Pasoans for jobs that paid a living wage and altered lives....
Those who worked with him said he fought poverty and injustice wherever he saw it. EPISO was involved in efforts to build El Paso Children’s Hospital and expand University Medical Center clinics across the county so that more people would have access to health care.
While Roden-Lucero served as pastor of San Juan Diego Catholic Church in Montana Vista, EPISO led an effort to divide the Clint Independent School District Board of Trustees into single-member districts so that power and resources were more evenly divided.
Roden-Lucero arrived in El Paso a couple of years after a group of mostly Catholic churches formed the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, or EPISO, a nonprofit organization that trained community-based leaders to advocate for issues important to them. He had received training from the Industrial Areas Foundation, EPISO’s parent organization, before coming to El Paso.
EPISO leaders quickly focused on the dire situation in colonias, neighborhoods along the U.S.-Mexico border that had been developed without the most basic human services. By the mid-1980s, more than 80,000 El Paso County residents lived in homes without water or wastewater services. Many of them developed hepatitis A because they drank from water wells dug next to septic tanks.
State and local leaders had shown little interest in addressing the growing crisis. So EPISO and other IAF affiliates across Texas organized and turned up the heat, bringing national media attention to shameful conditions along the border.
Dolores DeAvila, an educator in El Paso’s Lower Valley and EPISO member, met Roden-Lucero in the early 1980s and was part of the fight to bring water to the colonias.
“I have learned a lot from him in terms of his being very courageous, acting on his beliefs and working with his parishioners, engaging them in their needs,” she said.
Years of lobbying and public pressure by EPISO and its sister organizations paid off in 1989, when Texas voters passed a bond issue to begin the process of providing water and wastewater infrastructure to border colonias....
[Photo Credit: Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters]
The Priest Who Spent 40 Years Fighting to Reshape El Paso, El Paso Matters [pdf]